Uti possidetis juris or uti possidetis iuris (Latin for "as [you] possess under law") is a principle of international law which provides that newly formed sovereign states should retain the internal borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence.
[2] Uti possidetis juris has been applied in modern history to such regions as South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union, and numerous other regions where centralized governments were broken up, where imperial rulers were overthrown, or where League of Nations mandates ended, e.g.
It is often applied to prevent foreign intervention by eliminating any contested terra nullius, or no man's land, that foreign powers could claim, or to prevent disputes that could emerge with the possibility of redrawing the borders of new states after their independence.
[3] The doctrine has been asserted in relation to Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
[4] The principle was also applied by the Badinter Arbitration Committee established by the Council of Ministers of the European Economic Community in opinions related to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, specifically no.